Stiff Cake
by bringing smiles
Summary: Hermione wanted to give Fred a nice birthday present and express her feelings but he had to go and prank-ify his own gift. Will Hermione ever be able to express her feelings toward him? Rated T for language, I guess. Twin Exchange Entry.


**_I don t own Harry Potter or any of it s characters blahblahblah. This is done for the Twin Exchange Monthly Challenge. I chose hair gel, the prompt Honestly! Fred/Hermione, and Fred and George Weasley's Birthday. Enjoy. It only took an hour to write. :]_**

_Stiff Cake_

"Honestly! Is there not a single time you cannot try and pull some prank to ruin one thing or another?" a scolding voice spoke out against the one of the red-haired Weasley twins, who was currently backed up into a corner by none other than Hermione Granger, "It's absolutely ridiculous how you two act, you'd think you were children or something!"

"Yikes, Hermione. Calm down! It was just a joke," Fred spoke to the fuming girl, waving his hands up in front of him as if they were some sort of protection.

"That is exactly my point! You seriously need to sort out your priorities!"

That was definitely not the first time he had heard that line before, and it probably wouldn't be the last. She always yelled that phrase around when someone was doing something they shouldn't or doing something that they probably should do but are doing it before they are doing more important tasks,"It's really not that big of a deal, you know. He won't care that much."

The brunette haired girl was a ticking time bomb now; she hadn't even unleashed her full wrath on Fred yet. She pulled her wand out of her robe pocked and poked the teenage boy's chest with the wood, glaring at him powerfully with her chocolate colored eyes,"I cannot believe you do not think it is a big deal! It's a huge deal! I ought to curse you five times over and leave every single part of your body in a different time-era and never help you get back to your whole self. Ever."

"Now, now, Hermione. You wouldn't do that. You'd miss me far too much, dear."

"Miss you? My life would be so much easier if you weren't causing havoc all the time, sometimes I wish you weren't around." She regretted speaking those words as soon as they came from her lips. Her face dropped in shock of the powerful words she used against Fred Weasley, and also because she had never seen that much hurt sweep across someone's face in her years of existence.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. I'll just leave, then."

He placed his arms on her shoulders, moving her aside so that he could step around her. So this is what it felt like to be loathed by the person you cared the most about. He had spent all this time loving someone who just wanted him gone. It felt like someone had taken his heart and smashed it under a slab of concrete.

"Wait, Fred, I didn't mea-"

It was too late. He had went into the boys' dormitories, Hermione still standing there in the corner, now facing the opposite direction than when she was scolding Fred in the corner.

"Bloody hell, Hermione. Think you could have stabbed someone any deeper with your words?"

"Can it, George, I'm not in the mood."

She stormed up to the girls' dormitories herself, feeling terrible about what she had said to Fred, which wasn't even true. In fact, the truth was opposite what she had said. She loved having Fred around and she loved it when he was causing some sort of trouble because then she always had the oppurtunity to be near him, even if it was mostly her scolding him for pulling some meaningless prank.

But this prank really made her angry this time. She had known that Fred and George's birthdays were the next day, so she set off in making a special cake for Fred. She never wanted Fred to know her secret obsession with him, so she had made it seem like she was making a cake just for George, but it was really meant for him. But Fred didn't know that so he convieniently hexed the icing tubes to taste of hair gel as a prank against his own brother. Hermione hadn't even realized it until after she had decorated the cake, tastng the remnants of the icing in the piping tool, but nearly gagged to death after tasting the hair gel. She had been so angry at Fred because he had sabotaged his own marvelous birthday present. Hermione might not have even cared if she had the time to make a new one, but she didn't. His birthday was tomorrow and she still needed to study a bit before turning in.

She fell asleep unknowingly, but was woken up by a frantic Ginny Weasley,"Hermione, Hermione, wake up. Fred's disappeared. He left a note saying he intended on leaving Hogwarts. You have to help us find him and talk some sense into him."

She groaned a lttle, but bounced up quickly as soon as the words registered in her head. He was going to leave because she didn't want him there? Why? That didn't make much sense, she decided, but shrugged it off and joined his younger sister down in the common room, where the Gryffindor house was devising a search plan.

"I'll search the grounds," Hermione squeaked, hoping that she'd be the one to find him first.

She set off down the stairs, thankfully not seeming to run into Peeves or Mrs. Norris as she bounded down the stairs, taking a secret passage way before darting out the door. Her eyes squinted as they readjusted to the darkness of the night, and looked forward in hopes of finding him close by, however she was not that lucky.

Being the observant person that Hermione Granger was though, she noticed that the grass in front of the steps had indents down them and theywere leading off toward the Herbology Green Houses. She followed the trail of footsteps, hoping these were Fred's and not someone else's. In the silence, she heard a cough, which left her on high alert.

"Hello?" she called out, "Who is there?"

He was standing behind a tree, he knew he had heard someone coming... but why her of all people? The words she spoke to him earlier played through his head, his heart throbbing with the need to just be wanted by Hermione Granger. He saw her come around the tree and look at him with those eyes, but it wasn't the simmering chocolate he had seen earlier, it was a soft brown stare looking up at him, the relief floating through her eyes.

"Hermione."

"Fred."

"Hermion-"

And she hit him. Hard, on the chest, her hand meeting his clothed skin with a 'fwack.' "What in the heck do you think you were doing?" Hit. "You are ought of your mind, trying to run away from Hogwarts." Hit again.

"Oi, Hermione, will you stop hitting me, please?" he asked her nicely. Once she stopped, he resumed speaking,"I am leaving because no one worth while wants me here."

"What are you talking about? Everyone loves you here, everyone is up in the common room flipping a basket and trying to develop a search plan to look for you," she pointed out to him.

"It doesn't matter if the person you love doesn't want you in their life."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know, for being the student with all the top marks, you are kind of lacking in the common sense department, you should really go shopping for some of that," he told her, poking her forehead.

"I still don't understand what you mean," she said, bewildered at the twin.

"Hermione, I..." he started, but pasued. He knew she hated him, what made any difference in him telling her. "Hermione, I think I love you. And if you don't want me here then I have no desire to be here. I don't want to be a bother to you."

"Oh Fred," Hermione started, sighing, "I didn't mean what I said back there, I was just angry. I... I. I. I."

"Well, go on then, spit it out," he proded her shoulder as she stuttered on her I's.

"I think I love you too," she admitted outloud to Fred and also to herself, "I would be so unhappy if you left."

"Well then that settles it! I'm here to stay!"

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." he told her, then clearing his throat. "Erm. I'm sorry for ruining George's cake. I know you must have worked hard on it. I do apologize for that."

She smiled at him, wrapping her fingers around his as they walked toward the castle,"It's okay. It wasn't meant for George anyway, it was supposed to be just for you. But you ruined your own birthday pres-."

She was cut off by twelve long rings of a bell, signaling the midnight hour. "Well, I guess there is something I could replace your present with."

He looked at her with a curious stare, their gaze meeting, as she stepped on the tips of her toes and kissed Fred lightly on the lips,"Happy birthday, Fred."

"Thank you... say, did you get George anything for his birthday?"

"No, why?"

"I think you should give him the cake."

_Later in the morning..._

Happy birthday, George! Hermione and Fred announced, whipping the cloth from over the cake.

"Mmm, cake ith dericious! Tanks Hewmyonee!" George cheered as he took a huge bight out of the corner of the cake, but as soon as the taste registered in his mouth, he spit it out, "What is this crap!"

She batted her eyelashes gently at George, "Why, whatever could you mean?"

"It tastes... like hair gel!"

Fred and Hermione looked at each other and laughed, before the two headed off to the Great Hall for breakfast. As soon as the two went through the portrait, Hermione grabbed him by the shirt collar and kissed him on the mouth fully, before pulling back.

"Happy birthday, Fred, I love you."

"I love you too."

* * *

><p><strong>End. Hope you enjoyed :] I'll write some more soon, I promise.<strong>


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